When I ask the question “Will You Find Your Next Client — or Will They Find You?”, it is a direct challenge to business owners to define an inbound marketing strategy that will encourage those who are ready to buy to contact you.
People understand the value of having an in-house email list, but many small businesses haven’t started building their list or planning their email marketing strategy. Remember that there are only two things a business owns in the online world – your website and your email list.
Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing is different. Understand the differences and develop marketing programs that are appropriate for your audience.
It’s the time of year where posts on marketing trends are more than abundant. You can find plenty of posts on digital marketing trends. But as I was working on my content audit, I came across a couple of posts on small business marketing trends for the years 2013 and 2014. As I reviewed these, I noticed something very interesting.
If someone is willing to invest in your business, what do you promise to do that provides value to them that matters? This promise, or value proposition, needs to be based on something you do that is uniquely different from your competition.
Many small businesses have content on their website that needs a bit of refreshing (including mine!). If your content was written more than a year ago, it may be time to schedule a content audit before you plan your content marketing activities.
How well do you communicate your value to your ideal client? What is needed to create a powerful marketing message that helps your target know exactly how you can help them and why they should work with you and not your competition.
A quality website is critical to a successful inbound marketing strategy. As the central focal point of your online marketing, your website needs to be up 24×7. Building your website in WordPress gives you the ability to manage and maintain the website yourself. But if you are managing your website personally, do you have a WordPress backup strategy in place?
The simple definition, although not quite accurate, is that bounce rate is a single page visit to your website. According to Google, a bounce is calculated specifically as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server.
Implementing an inbound marketing plan can have a major effect on the growth of your small business but it can also be a drain on an already overwhelmed small business owner. By following these five steps and outsourcing where it makes sense, you can create an inbound marketing system that gains visibility and drives traffic to your website.
Lead nurturing is what it sounds like: continually providing support and nourishment to leads (in this case acquired through your inbound marketing efforts) by anticipating their needs and sending them new, fantastic content that is interesting, educational and relevant.
You finally have a powerful website and blog that you are proud to show off, with messages that clearly explain how you help your clients and the value you provide. Now you need to increase website traffic in order to gain visibility, grow your email list, sell your product or offer your services to the right audience.
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